In order to keep a record of all the past work and ideas that have gone into Beyond Resistance, we’ve decided to post our original Aims & Principles from the 2009-2012 period here (rather than delete them completely). These are currently under revision and do not necessarily represent the present collective.

The vast majority of society have no control whatsoever over the decisions that most deeply and directly affect their lives, while the few, who own or control the means of production, accumulate wealth, make laws and use the whole machinery of the State to perpetuate and reinforce their privileged positions. Therefore, we believe that the working class and the capitalist class have nothing in common. There can be no peace as long as hunger, deprivation and boredom are found among millions of working people and the few, who make up the capitalist class, have a gross excess of all the good things of life.

We advocate the abolition of capitalism, wage slavery and all economic systems of oppression and exploitation through tactics like direct action, solidarity and class struggle. We aim to create a free and classless society, based on workers’ self-management of the means and relations of production, distribution for need not profit, free association, mutual aid, and federation — Anarchist Communism.

We believe the state, like capitalism, cannot be reformed, and refuse to support participation in parliamentary elections. We advocate the abolition of all forms of government and the state and the replacement of hierarchical political structures with those based on direct, participatory democracy.

No ruling class in history has ever relinquished its power without struggle. Power will be taken from them by the conscious, autonomous action of the working class themselves and will be a time of violence as well as liberation. The idea that socialism can be achieved peacefully, or by a revolutionary elite acting ‘on behalf of’ the working class is both absurd and reactionary.

The only revolutionary body able to end capitalism is the working class itself, in the form of mass, spontaneous and self-organised struggle from below. Meaningful action, as pro-revolutionaries, is whatever increases the potential and practice of these forms in preparation for mass/general strikes within the workplace and the community.

We reject patriarchy and fight for the empowerment and liberation of women. We stand in solidarity with feminist struggles, and believe that actively challenging the personal and interpersonal manifestations of patriarchy is equally as important as working towards structural changes. Both need to happen together to create a new society free of male domination.

We work for the creation of a society that encourages cultural diversity. We reject all forms of racial and ethnic prejudice, nation states, nationalism and patriotism: we are not patriots, we are internationalists.

We recognize the ongoing history of indigenous self-organisation and resistance to both capitalism and colonization, and we support the need for Maori to struggle as Maori, with Maori, and on Maori terms. As a group that is focused on class struggle, what we have to offer is a critique of corporate and representative approaches to social change. We aim to work alongside grassroots Maori struggle in Aotearoa and develop our understanding of the links between colonization and class exploitation.

We reject compulsory heterosexuality and fight for the empowerment and liberation of queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, asexual and intersex people.

We reject the marginalisation of those of us in class struggle because of age, experience, mental or physical ability.

We recognise that our natural environment is under continual assault from the forces of excessive and unsustainable production. Instead, we envision a world where common ownership of the earth and the direct democracy of communities act as the guardian of ecological sustainability.

The forms and content thrown up by class struggle cannot be fully known in advance, therefore we aim to allow room for reflection, criticism and change within the group.

We operate on the free agreement between those who think it useful to unite and co-operate to achieve the goals above. Members have a moral duty to support the enterprises undertaken as a collective and to do nothing that would go against these accepted aims and principles. Full autonomy, full independence and thus full responsibility of the individual to the collective is needed to be effective.